GALACTIC WARFARE

 

  GALACTIC WARFARE

Object
To capture all of your opponent’s ships by attacking them, or to invade your opponent’s home planet by occupying every space in his home planet with your ships.

Equipment
1 Game Board, 24 Ships (12 white, 12 blue), 8 Dice (4 white, 4 blue), 100 Galactic Warfare Cards
 
Game Board
The game board is an intergalactic grid consisting of 80 squares, alternating between light and dark. Each player has an 8 square home planet at their end of the board.

Galactic Warfare Cards
The 50 cards represent special abilities that may be used before, during, or after you or your opponent’s turn depending on what the card states.

Before You Play (Preliminaries)
Initial Placement of Ships

12 white ships should be set up on the first 12 dark squares directly in front of your home planet. 12 blue ships should be set up on the first 12 dark squares directly in front of your opponent’s home planet on the opposite side of the board.

Drawing Cards
Before the game, deal out 15 cards to you and your opponent. You may look at your own cards now and throughout the game.

Play the Game
Beginning the Game
The face-off begins by you and your opponent rolling one die each to see who goes first.  The player that rolls the higher number can choose to either move first, allow your opponent to move first, or defer the decision to your opponent.

Movement of the Ships
There are three types of moves you can make- a charge, attack or retreat.
Charge- A charge is made by moving your ship forward, from one dark square to an adjoining dark square toward your opponent’s home planet. Ships must never rest upon or cross a light square, and ships can only move forward.
Attack- An attack is also done on the diagonal and may be made on your opponent’s ship in an adjacent square if the square beyond is vacant (similar to a “jump” in Checkers). Before attacking an opponent’s ship you must declare an attack by moving your attacking ship onto the corner of the square that your opponent’s ship is occupying and by stating that you are attacking.  Each time an attack is made, a battle occurs. Since in the beginning of the game, you and your opponent have no ‘power-ups’ (which are granted to those who “capture” their opponent’s ships) each player rolls one die to battle. The player who rolls the higher number wins the battle. If the attacking player wins the battle, he captures the defending ship by placing it under his own ship that it used for the attack.  This captured ship acts as a ‘power-up’ to the ship that acquired it. If the defending ship were to win the battle, the attacking player must ‘retreat’ his ship back to his home planet.
Retreat- A retreat is made when an attacking player loses a battle. A retreat is made by moving your ship into a vacant square on your home planet that your opponent chooses. If there are no vacant squares in your home planet, that ship must be removed from play (so move your ships out of home planet as soon as possible!)

Attack with Power-ups- Once the face-off is underway, attacks will be made with ships that have acquired power-ups. In this case, both you and your opponent roll as many dice as you have power-ups (including the original ship) and add together your rolls. Whichever player has the higher sum has one the battle. Therefore, it is very advantageous to acquire as many power-ups as you can. However, a ship may only acquire a maximum of 3 power-ups per ship below the original ship (four ships in total). After this, any captured ships are discarded from the game. If an attack is successful against a ship with power-ups, you only acquire one power-up and the rest of the ships are discarded.

Attacking a ship in their home planet- An attack may be made against a ship in your opponent’s home planet. However, the defending player has an extra roll in defending his home planet.  If the attack is won, your ship simply occupies that square. Once a ship is placed in your opponent’s home planet, it must remain there for the duration of the game, unless explicitly stated in a card that a ship may be removed.

Touch and Move- Once the face-off has commended you must move any playable ships you touch (unless you make it known in advance that you are arranging a piece), and any cards that state play before your move may no longer be played.

Playing Galactic Warfare Cards- Cards may be played anytime during the game as long as the card dictates that it is an appropriate time to play it. You may only play one card per turn.

Stuck Ships
If at any time during the game, one of your ships reaches your opponent’s home planet but cannot enter because you have ships in those squares of the home base already, this ship is essentially ‘stuck’, and there is nowhere to move it.  The only way this ship can be moved is by declaring that you would like to attempt to retreat this ship back to your home planet.  You then roll two dice.  If you roll doubles, you may retreat your ship back to your own home planet to restart your journey to your opponent’s home planet, otherwise your turn is over.  This counts as your move for that turn so try not to get ships stuck!